Star Trek: The Next Generation analysis of season 1 episode 8 (The Battle)

We are with the Ferengi again in another offensive and poorly written episode, although we get some amazing lines from our favorite boys, Data and Wesley!

The episode's storyline, which focuses on a past battle in which Picard destroyed an unidentified ship in defense after an unprompted attack, serves YET AGAIN to allow Picard and, by extension, European settlers as a whole to avoid having to reconcile with past violences against native peoples via a black and white narrative that frames the Ferengi as cartoonishly bad and Picard as cartoonishly good.

Though some extremely interesting and important themes are brought up in The Battle they, as always, are bypassed in favor of making sure that no one aboard the Enterprise ever has to truly grapple with the past atrocities of the ruling class or the reality of Starfleet as a paramilitary institution.

Also, very inconsistent headache logic.

Our amazing intro and outro music was created by the supremely talented Trevor Andrew Hamer. If you'd like to work with Trevor or see more of his work, you can find him on: Instagram | YouTube

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